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Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

(Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq fell on Thursday, weighed down by Amazon.com, Apple and other top-shelf technology stocks, while the Dow Jones Industrial rose marginally and was on track for a record high close.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs has bought a slice of Saudi Aramco's $10 billion credit facility as it seeks a role in the historic listing of the oil company, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell last week, pointing to a tightening labor market that likely keeps the Federal Reserve on course to announce plans next month to start reducing its massive bond portfolio.

(Reuters) - MetLife Inc's shares were down 2.6 percent on Thursday after the largest U.S. life insurer said it expected charges of about $1 billion in the third quarter related to the spinoff of its U.S. retail business, Brighthouse Financial.

(Reuters) - Dish Network Corp's shares declined on Thursday after the satellite television provider's quarterly results missed analysts' estimates, and its chief executive declined to give specifics on merger discussions, saying that the company was focused on building its new wireless network.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bats, the CBOE Holdings Inc-owned exchange operator, lambasted the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Inc over their criticism of a Bats plan to compete for end-of-day stock orders, calling it disingenuous in a letter to regulators.

When tighter regulations were imposed on the banks after the Financial Crisis, the largest among them, the very ones that threatened to bring down the financial system, began squealing. Those voices are now being heard by Congress, which is considering deregulating the banks again. In particular, they claim that current capital requirements force banks to curtail their lending to businesses and consumers, and thus hurt the economy.

Nonsense! That's in essence what FDIC Vice Chairman Thomas Hoenig told Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo and the committee's senior Democrat, Sherrod Brown, in a letter dated Tuesday, according to Reuters. The senators are trying to find a compromise on bank deregulation.

If banks wanted to increase lending, they could easily do so without lower capital requirements, Hoenig pointed out.

Rather than blowing their income on share-buybacks or paying it out in form of dividends, banks could retain more of their income, thus adding it to regulatory capital. Capital absorbs the losses from bad loans. Higher capital levels make a bank more resilient during the next crisis. If there isn't enough capital, the bank col ...

Stocks slumped, and VIX spiked following news that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury in Washington to investigate Russia's interference in the 2016 elections, the WSJ reports, adding that "this is a sign that his inquiry is growing in intensity and entering a new phase." The grand jury is said to have begun work in recent weeks, suggesting Mueller's inquiry is ramping up and "that it will likely continue for months."

Some details: "grand juries are powerful investigative tools that allow prosecutors to subpoena documents, put witnesses under oath and seek indictments, if there is evidence of a crime. Legal experts said that the decision by Mr. Mueller to impanel a grand jury suggests he believes he will need to subpoena records and take testimony from witnesses."

"This is yet a further sign that there is a long-term, large-scale series of prosecutions being contemplated and being pursued by the special counsel," said Stephen I. Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas. "If there was already a grand jury in Alexandria looking at Flynn, there would be no need to reinvent the wheel for the same guy. This suggests that the investigation is bigger and wider than Flynn, perhaps substantially so."

Speaking to the WSJ, Ty Cobb - special counsel to the president - said he wasn't aware that Mueller - who is investigating Russia's efforts to influence the 2016 election and whether President Donald Trump's campaign or associates colluded with the Kremlin - had started using a new grand jury. "Grand jury matters are typically secret," Mr. Cobb said. "The White House favors anything that accelerates the conclusion of his work fairly. ...

Since Wikileaks began releasing classified CIA documents back in March as part of its "Vault 7" series of leaks, purportedly the largest document dump in the agency's history, it has publicly unveiled programs with innocent sounding names like "Marble", "Scribbles" and "Archimedes" that the agency employs to help execute its operations, or to cover its tracks.

On Thursday, the group released the 19th installment in its series by publishing a series of documents detailing how the agency uses a custom-designed hacking exploit called "Dumbo" to destroy, or manufacture, evidence during field operations, according to a Wikileaks press release.

The CIA filed a request that such a tool back in 2012, according to a powerpoint presentations describing what capabilities it would need.

In a field guide for the tool, dated July 2015, the agency says "the intelligence ...

While Silicon Valley's technorati may be "living it up," new data from Pitchbok suggests the Venture Capital world is stuck in 'Hotel California' and "can never leave."

As Pitchbook.com's Katie Clark reports, opting to raise more funds rather than prioritizing an exit seems to be an increasingly popular route for startups.

According to data from the 2Q PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, the number of US venture capital investments for every VC-backed exit reached a record high in the first half of 2017 - landing at 11.3x. For the 3,917 VC investments completed in 1H, there were just 348 exits.

If the trend continues in 2H, the US VC industry will experience the lowest exit levels since 2010. Similarly, but to a lesser extreme, investment count may end the year at the lowest mark in five years - 2012 was the last year the total number of financings in the US fell below 8,000.

Why is this happening? Companies are choosing to stay private longer as is evidenced by the data shown below: The average time to exit has hit roughly six years through 1H 2017. More specifically, median time to IPO now exceeds eight years, time to buyout is hovering around six-and-a-half years and time to acquisition has landed at about four-and-a-half years.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury in Washington to investigate Russia's interference in the 2016 elections, a sign that his inquiry is growing in intensity and entering a new phase, according to two people familiar with the matter.

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